The Laguna Beach City Council will consider holding fining adults who serve alcohol to minors at parties. FILE PHOTO: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER; TEXT BY CLAUDIA KOERNER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

LAGUNA BEACH – After hours of discussion from local teens, parents and experts, the City Council agreed it would go forward with an ordinance prohibiting adults from serving underage guests alcohol in their homes, but more input and specificity would be needed.

The city is asking for input through Oct. 16 on its draft of a social host ordinance, which would hold adults responsible for knowingly allowing underage drinking in their homes. The council will come back to the issue on Nov. 13, and officials hope a revised ordinance will address critics' questions about the need for an ordinance and when it could be enforced.

In spite of the divergent opinions of speakers, council members pointed out that no one had offered support for underage drinking.

"Everyone that spoke is speaking for the welfare of the kids," Councilwoman Toni Iseman said. "We have a chance here to really do something."

Laguna is the latest city to create a local law targeting wild underage parties.Social host ordinances have found support around the country; in Orange County, the cities of Mission Viejo, Irvine and Laguna Hills have similar laws. The goal is to offer police another enforcement tool when responding to underage parties, Laguna Beach Police Chief Paul Workman said.

Existing laws on contributing to the delinquency of a minor require a higher burden of proof as they are criminal offenses administered through the District Attorney's Office, he said. A social host ordinance would focus on adults who allow teens to drink at parties at their home.

"It's a special set of circumstances," Workman said, adding that other cities that had passed similar laws had seen between three and 10 violations a year.

Speakers, which included Laguna Beach High School students and youth services professionals, spoke on a variety of issues relating to the ordinance, from its unintended consequences to statistics on the danger of teen drinking.

Pam Estes of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Laguna Beach said it was up to the community, which has long had an underage drinking problem, to change the social environment around alcohol.

"Teens don't just drink, they drink to excess," she said. "And it's not OK to deny the risk it brings to them and others."

Pediatrician Gary Jenkins said studies have shown that people who begin drinking at younger ages have a higher risk for alcoholism. An ordinance would send a message about underage drinking.

"I'm afraid that failure to pass it could send the message that our city doesn't really care if someone provides alcohol or drugs to someone else's child," he said.

Resident Barbara McMurray, mother of a 12- and 16-year-old, said the language and intent of the ordinance as written were unclear. Going forward, she said she hoped the city would address more fully why the law was necessary, what its goals are and how success would be measured.

"We need to make this issue more data based so we can look at it five, 10, 20 years down the road and measure its impact," she said.

Laguna Beach High School student Andrew Landsiedel said after a social host ordinance passed in Santa Barbara, 911 calls related to underage drinking dropped off. He feared the consequences of an environment where teens who drink were afraid to call the police.

"We are not encouraging teen drinking, we are not encouraging partying," he said.

"This ordinance could very well kill someone."

Part of considerations before the next vote will include looking into waiving penalties of the social host ordinance when drinking leads to a medical emergency. Officials will also tighten the law's language and provide more information on frequently asked questions.

Better defining the term "knowingly" would help allay fears from parents that the law would be overreaching, Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson said.

"If we can just tweak this with those clarifications, I think people would feel a lot more comfortable with it," she said.

Parties taking place while parents are away from home would not be covered by the ordinance, nor would cases where teens snuck in alcohol without adults' knowledge. The law is not intended to apply to parents who allow their teen a drink or for religious observances. Landlords would not be liable for the actions of tenants, and police would not have more power to enter private homes.

If passed, council members suggested mandatory counseling or a class as the penalty for a first offense. Iseman said further violations should go straight to a $1,000 fine.

Any input on the ordinance may be sent to the police chief at pworkman@lagunabeachcity.net. Council members also hoped students would work with their peers to add recommendations.

"Our goal is people talking about it," Iseman said. "You can make it as good as you possibly can."

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